Home teams are 2-0 so far in the playoffs, and the wins didn’t come with much difficultly for either the Seahawks or the Texans. The road teams, Detroit and Oakland, didn’t even come close to covering the spread.
NFL scores and more, Wild Card Weekend: What happened Saturday
Butt catches, bad calls and lots more from Saturday’s NFL playoff games. Also, we’re getting ready for two more on Sunday.
Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images
But it wasn’t all bad, at least not once we got through with the first game of the day, the annual Wild Card stinker featuring a third-string quarterback and Brock Osweiler.
TEXANS 27, RAIDERS 14
Houston's defense dominates hobbled Oakland offense. The Texans will advance after earning a 27-14 win over the Raiders. Jadeveon Clowney powered Houston's defensive performance, destroying almost every screen pass the Raiders threw. He even came away with his first career interception.
Goodbye 2016 Oakland Raiders, you didn’t deserve this. The Oakland Raiders were the best thing about this NFL season, and they were handed the worst ending.
Texans sticking with Brock Osweiler at quarterback after win vs. Raiders. He showed enough on Saturday to earn his job back.
Bill O’Brien dismisses rumors that he will be leaving Texans after win. O’Brien seems to be safe ... for now.
SEAHAWKS 26, LIONS 6
Seattle blows past Detroit to advance to Divisional Round. The Seahawks did it with an old familiar formula, running the damn ball. Thomas Rawls rumbled over a clawless Lions defense for a franchise record that he didn't even know he'd broken.
Paul Richardson made the catch of the year. But it was overshadowed by a clear facemask that the refs missed. We’ll definitely be hearing about this for a while.
Why does the Lions center snap the ball like that? It seems to be working for Detroit!
DRAFT ORDER
NFL draft 2017 order: offseason begins for the Raiders, Lions. For the first time in five years, the Raiders don’t have a draft pick in the top half of the first round.
SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY
Two more games on Sunday, and they look like they could be good ones. First up, the Steelers host the Dolphins to complete the AFC Wild Card games. If the Dolphins win, they’ll go on to face the Patriots and the Texans will play the Chiefs. If the Steelers win, they’ll get the Chiefs and the Texans will play the Patriots.
This will be the first playoff game that Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown have all been on the field together.
Second on the bill, it’s the Giants at Packers. It’s hard to bet against Aaron Rodgers given the way he’s playing, which is partly set up by a really smart running game. Then again, the Giants defense has been stifling opponents all season, thanks to players like safety Landon Collins.
Experts are picking the home team in these games, too.
ABOUT THOSE CLEATS
We talked to two of the artists who make those cool cleats for Antonio Brown and some other NFL players. It’s part of a huge culture change in the NFL.
See More:
